Review

The Lostprophets changed quite a bit with every album. A realtively hard sound that could remind one of Faith No More on "The Fake Sound of Progress". A more catchy and poppy, yet quite enjoyable sound on "Start Something". With "Liberation Transmission" the band from Wales returns, and have changed yet again. The first question people will ask: "To the better or to the worse?". That, as always, depends. On what you expect and wish this album to be.

What you will not find here is a second "Start Something", just like you did not get a second "Fake Sound of Progress" with the mentioned precessor. Most, if not all songs on this albums have as topic: ' breaking free', 'fight opression', 'don't take it no more' etc. Well, that's nothing too groundbreaking new, quite a lot of bands tackled this before. Which brings some of the lines and songs very close to the region of being corny, cheesy and cliche. The words chosen are not the worst, but also not the most original about the topic. Sometimes it kinda feels like recycling though. If you're familiar with "Start Something" and it's singles, you can spot similarities regarding lyrics in songs like the first single "Rooftops" for example. Anyone heard the line from "Make a move" that gave the song the name?

Speaking of singles, there seems to be an almost endless pool of singles here. Twelve to be precise. All songs are VERY catchy, and it's hard not to tap your fingers, foot or whatever to the beat and melodies presented here. Which will surely be something the label will be very pleased with. Singalong choruses and lines almost everywhere, passages with a lot of choir like 'stadium shouting' in the background. It just animates you to tag along. This is surely one of the strong points here.

I was very suprised by the musicianship and songwriting though I must confess. It seems like there are a lot more guitar solo parts, more noticable piano parts, more different guitar sounds, vocal effects. The vocals overall seem different. I had a hard time to identify Ian the first time I heard this. It's nice though that they try new stuff. The bass and drums are a bit left out though, as their work seems ok, but not really different to the previous album.

A bummer were the cross references to other bands. When "Everybody's Screaming" started, I thought a copy of Franz Ferdinand was playing. You can spot a bit of Mando Diao here and there as well. I got reminded of Bloc Party as well once. Sure, the previous stuff was not really what you would call absolutely innovative. But with "Start Something" the band had established a sound that was kind of charactetistic for them. The guitar and Ian's vocals can be identified quite well. Why trade that in to sound like other bands? That's beyond my comprehension. (Yeah, I see those comments regarding this sentence screaming "SELLOUT!!!!!"...)

So what do we have in a nutshell then? Some uber-cliche elements (vocal uh's, ah's, woao's etc, sometimes really overdone lyrics), a production that is, at least partly, as epic and bombastic as the whole Star Wars series (when compared to the previous works). We have catchyness, cross references/rip-offs of other bands. We have good vocal performance though, and the overall musicianship isn't bad either. What's that when you sum it up? An enjoyable album, I must confess that. It's quite fun to listen to if you can look past the cheesyness on some of the songs. You want something that fits good as background music to stuff you have to take care of? Good choice. But somehow I doubt that this is something I could listen to all day. "Start Something" was better for that, as the songs were catchy but not too much. I tend to get bored of the uber-catchy ones too fast. In a way, this will suffer the same way as "Hours" by Funeral for a Friend did. Anticipated by the fans, but not as appreciated as their previous efforts. Or, splitting the fan base in halfs: The ones that love it, and the ones that absolutely hate it.

Hop over to the bands MySpace to check out their single "Rooftops" to get an impression of what they sound like now and what awaits you with this album. Check out "Can't Catch Tomorrow (Good Shoes Won't Save You This Time)" for some of the vocal cheesyness, right off from the start, If you were a fan of Fake Sound Of Progress and not impressed by Start Something, I guess you kinda hate this one. Otherwise, give it a spin and a chance, you might be in for some casual fun that does not last ages.

The Rise Against song about rooftops and being 'Ready to Fall' is wayyyyyyyyy better than this band's song about 'Rooftops.' Now grant it, I haven't heard anything else from this album, but judging by your review, it looks like I'll have to stick with 'Shinobi vs. Dragon Ninja.'

":-/ I loved The Fake Sound of Progress and Start Something (though I got really sick of the latter), and I even like 'Rooftops', but I'm sad to read the album wasn't the real step up the band should be making. I wonder if I'll bother buying this now."

I got this album and am not too keen on it so far because it seems too pop-rock for my liking, however i liked rooftops.

I was let down by this album because lostprophets made a song called "lately" which they performed live sometimes on their "start something" tour and they made a demo of it which was given to me by a friend, and frankly that song rules, hence i was expecting a finalised version on this disc.This Message Edited On 06.24.06

I've been a fan ever since I got TFSOP on import back in the day. I loved that album, I loved Start Something, and I like this one.
To anybody with half a brain cell, it was clearly apparent what direction they were heading in after SS, and yet still Rooftops is prompting cries of 'sellout'. Honestly, they had the brothers from Good Charlotte doing backup vocals on Last Train Home...if ever they sold out, THAT was the moment.
But I'm rambling. Point is, I'm a big fan of this band, and I think the key to this album is appreciating it in the proper context. It's not like they were going to reinvent the wheel or anything. All they've done is write a good collection of catchy, well-written songs.
Dissapointed that they lyrics have taken a step down in quality though.

I really like this album. I really like 'everyday combat' ' town called hypocrisy' and ' for all these times'. i think this album beats SS anyday...i sort of think parts are better than FSOP, but i think it lies on the same lines.

this album is a step in the wrong direction for prophets, as they seem to have strayed away from rock and are only interested in pleasing the majority. dont get me wrong though its still a very good album, jus a bit dissapointed it wasnt a little harder

and who are you, exactly, to be the deciding why a certain band does a certain thing? I guess you must either be in their circle of friends, or a psychic.
Either way, you're pretty damn cool, I gotta admit.
and that's my sarcasm for the day. whee. don't take it personally.This Message Edited On 07.17.06